Nicklaus’ words should be required reading for all prepsters

Decades ago, when I was a kid, my uncles were into golf and idolized Jack Nicklaus.

He was Big Jack. Tree-trunk thighs, Popeye forearms. Every shot there was to have.

More than a half-century after I first heard his name and got a glimpse of him, Big Jack’s character stands taller than any shot he made on any golf course.

I think of his grace in losing and what he learned from it. He was never ashamed if he failed and never afraid to be great. If he wasn’t great or didn’t win, he dealt with it.

It’s a simple lesson through sports that should be passed down from generation to generation, especially when considering our classification system. Our high-schoolers need to learn more about losing and dealing with adversity than having everyone labeled as a winner. In short, they should be challenged more, not babied, and, trust me, they not only can handle it, but probably crave it.

Anyway, check out Nicklaus’ recent comments to Sports Illustrated:

“Your character comes through in golf. If you’re pissed at the world the whole time, you really can’t enjoy your wins, and in many ways you can’t really — what’s the word? — you can’t really understand the meaning of your defeats. To get beat is very healthy. Particularly when you’ve really given it your best effort.

“If you win every time, you don’t learn anything. You don’t learn anything about yourself. You don’t learn anything about the other person. You don’t learn anything about the game. You don’t learn anything about life.”

Neil Devlin, originally from the Philadelphia area, has covered high school sports in Colorado for more than 30 years, writing about the people, athletes and events that encompass the Rocky Mountain prep sports world.